Familiar criteria will be used in evaluating Michigan QB battle
The Michigan Wolverines kick off spring football on Monday in Ann Arbor, beginning a quarterback battle with major 2024 ramifications. U-M plans on staying in the College Football Playoff hunt under head coach Sherrone Moore, but it has five guys vying for time as spring camp opens.
Graduate Jack Tuttle, senior Davis Warren, juniors Alex Orji and Jayden Denegal and freshman early enrollee Jadyn Davis enter spring ball, in that order to start, competing for the job. From there, the competition begins and the pecking order will be evaluated.
The last time Michigan had a starting quarterback battle on its hands was in 2022 when Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy duked it out. Former head coach Jim Harbaugh’s three keys to the position included the ability to make every throw in the playbook, extending plays and being a “field general” who leads scoring drives.
That mentality and set of criteria projects to remain under Moore and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell, who dished on the competition on Friday with the media.
“I think those are great evaluation tools,” Campbell said. “Any time that you can put a guy out there that’s going to win a game, first off, and not lose the game, that’s probably the number one thing. Being able to play within the confines of a system and extending plays as well is important. The guy that can play on time, deliver the ball accurately and then have a little bit to his game to extend are great criteria to judge a starting quarterback on.”
Campbell has a system in place he wants to run, but Michigan will tweak and adjust based on the strengths of the man who wins the job. There has to be that type of pliability with so many options and the goal being a balanced offensive attack.
“To be a great coordinator you have to adapt around your players,” Campbell said. “What do they do best? Let’s just talk about a couple of the guys. If Davis Warren was going to be the guy, he’s going to do stuff different than what Jayden Denegal or Alex Orji would do. If Jack Tuttle is going to be the guy, it’ll be different. The offense is going to be unique to those skills but also complimentary to what else other players on the team do well.
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“Last year we were able to run the ball right downhill on people. We were really good on the offensive line. How is that going to be this year? We don’t know. Are we going to be a downhill team or are we going to be gap scheme oriented? That’s going to be dictated. We’re going to play to our player’s skillsets. We’re not going to pigeonhole ourselves into a square peg, round hole.”
It figures to be a contested battle during Michigan’s spring camp, but it also comes with the knowledge the transfer portal opens back up on April 15. Campbell thinks that the quarterback solution is likely on the roster already, but he and the U-M staff will keep their options open at multiple positions.
“I think a constant evaluation of your roster is always important,” Campbell said. “That’s a daily process. We meet about it all the time as an offense. It’s something we’re constantly evaluating. How do you improve your roster? I think you’re just open with the guys.
“We’re not going to live in the transfer portal but we’re going to add complimentary pieces. The culture we have to build around here is that we’re honest, we’re truthful, we don’t deceive and players respect that and that’s why we’ve been so successful with retaining players.”
